gay, bisexual, and transgender people) in Japan. But since neither Jun nor I are in

any way qualified to talk about it on our own we asked our Japanese viewers for their

opinions in an earlier video, and today I'm going to tell you what they said.

コメントしてくださった皆さん、本当にありがとうございました。 And just a quick disclaimer: we did our best

to translate the comments but there were some areas that we couldn't understand well, or

other areas where I wasn't able to make the translation sound graceful in English.

First of all, a number of people brought up the point that Japan has a history of homosexuality.

Japan's never had a religious basis for disliking homosexuality, and a lot of famous military

commanders and samurai are well-known for having had homosexual relationships. A few

people mentioned that there wasn't really an issue with homosexuality in Japan until

it opened up to the West. In Japan there's no religion that denies homosexuality

so it's not a sin. Homosexuality was never a sin or a vice--it was just something that

was always naturally there. So why should people have to say they're gay? I'm straight

but I've never made a declaration out of it. Until the Edo period there were gay samurai.

Sengoku era military commanders such as Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who are very

famous, swung their swords both ways. So for Japanese people gay love shouldn't be that

hard to accept. But I think that changed in the Meiji era when we started importing Western

ideology. How Japanese people view gay people nowadays

really depends on the person so you can't really say one way or the other. However,

Japanese people who know a lot of history are more tolerant of gay people than others

because in Japanese history there are a lot of gay people who accomplished important things.

Like Fujiwara no Yorinaga who established the imperial system, and military commanders

in the Sengoku period like Takeda Shingen, Oda Nobunaga, and Date Masamune.

We don't have a religious taboo or historical prejudice against being gay. We're a country

where famous daimyos wrote love letters to their pages, so... And genres like yaoi and

yuri are well-established now, too. It was customary for some samurai to have

gay lovers. Oda Nobunaga was well-known for that. It seems like 400 years ago he has a

relationship with a black male. The 3rd Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu liked good-looking boys more

than women. It seems like there used to be male gay people

in Japan and they were accepted before Western culture came into Japan. But after Western

culture came, they disappeared.

In general it seems like a lot of people said that gay people tend to hide themselves in

Japan. Knowledge about the differences between gay and transgender, and especially the varying

types of transgender seems to be pretty low. Konostack-san had the most highly upvoted

comment, and said: I'm gay.

The first thing I want to say is that in Japan I've received almost no violence or verbal

abuse. Most people tolerate, or at the very least are polite to gay people, so I think

anyone can live happily in Japan. But understanding of gay and transgender people

is still pretty low, and there's a fair amount of prejudice.

For example, TV producers lump the various sexual minorities together in a category called

"Onee" to drive up views, so you don't see Onee people who wear clothes, talk, or express

themselves emotionally in a way that's considered to be heterosexually male.

So if I come out as gay people will assume that I'm female on the inside, and they'll

assume I'm interested in cross-dressing or a sex change, like those entertainers who

speak like Onee. So gay people don't come out because if they do that storm of prejudice

pours down on them. But if you're just visiting, I believe there's

absolutely no problem and Japan is a safe country.

There are two traditional words for Onee-san in Japanese. The first means older sister,

but it can also refer to young, polite, feminine women, and the second refers to young (like

in their 20s) women, like the word "miss" and is something you would use to call over

a waitress, for example. And if you remove the "san" and write it as katakana, it becomes

Onee, which means gay men who talk effeminately but don't wear women's clothes or anything.

However, over the years the meaning has been distorted and now some people use it to refer

to all transgender and gay men. It's a somewhat controversial term, and while it seems okay

to say it about entertainers on TV, a lot of people would be upset if you used it to

refer to them in person.

People who look like men but on the inside are women are called Onee on TV. They're popular

entertainers. It seems like every TV program has an Onee. But in general society outside

of a special place called Shinjuku 2-chome, gay people hide themselves. After all, it's

not common to have gay friends in Japan. They might be there, but they're not "out" because

of the atmosphere in our society. When I imagine gay people in Western countries

they're sexy, macho guys. But I don't think there are very many gay people like that in

Japan. You have even less of a chance of seeing lesbians on TV. Of course I'm sure they're

there, but they're not "out" publicly. Onee people are popular at Shinjuku 2-Chome. So

I think gay people in Japan are completely different from gay people in Western countries.

Shinjuku 2-Chome is a district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, that's famous for being a gay neighborhood

with tons of gay bars and other businesses catering to the gay population. According

to Wikipedia in Shinjuku 2-Chome there are 291 gay bars, and 402 total businesses catering

to gay people, like host clubs, bath houses, massage parlors, video stores, etc.

Midori Komatsuzaki-san also mentioned it's not common to see lesbians on TV, and from

a lot of the comments we got it seems like lesbians are even more uncommon than gay people.

But, there were several people who said they have lesbian friends and co-workers who came out

and were accepted.

I have a female colleague who is a lesbian, and she's just a normal employee. She works

fine without any problems. My other colleagues and I planned a wedding ceremony for her.

In Japan young people don't really have a problem with gay people. Maybe it's thanks

to the media? By the way, in Japan we have onsen where you take a bath naked with others.

One of my straight friends has a hard time going to an onsen with my lesbian colleague

because she said it's like taking a bath with her male friends and it's embarrassing for her.

One of my friends is a lesbian, and when she told me about it I was really surprised but

I don't mind anymore. Even if someone is lesbian or gay, that doesn't mean they like EVERYONE

of that gender. I came to understand that she's not interested in dating me, and so

I don't mind. They also fall in love with people like us--it's just that they fall in

love with the same sex. Some people wouldn't understand that, though, and might break off

a friendship if their friend came out. Especially Christian people. And I think this doesn't

only happen in Japan.

And of course, some people in Japan view homosexuality the same way that some people in America view

it.

In general it seems like outside of TV most LGBT people tend to stay hidden, and because

of that a lot of people said they don't know anyone who's gay.

I think there are a lot of LGBT in Japan, but in the present condition they don't come

out. So like Jun, I don't personally know any gay people. When I studied abroad in America

and found out how many sexual minorities there are, after returning to Japan I realized that

they were certainly there, too, but because of today's state of affairs they hide themselves.

I don't know how it is for people from other countries, but I get the feeling that knowledge

of things like the differences between gay and transgender people in Japan is shallow.

It would be nice if they would teach us that in school...

I don't have any gay friends. I don't even have to think about it.

I just think there are fewer gay people in Japan than there are in America and other

Western countries. I think there are a lot of hidden gay people

in Japan. But I hear a lot of stories about gay people attacking other people, so I think

that's why they're not accepted. There may not be much prejudice about people

coming out or appearing as the opposite sex, though, because we're used to seeing them

on TV. But because we don't see them that often in real life, I think it's difficult

to know how to communicate with them.

Some people felt like coming out was mainly an issue with your workplace.

I'm a 40 year old straight, married man. I don't have gay friends or acquaintances,

nor do I know anyone at work who is gay. In my opinion, even if they were gay they wouldn't

tell people because in Japanese work culture it's very important how you're seen. Japanese

companies don't think it's a good idea to have a gay salesman. They might think it's

a little bad because customers might complain or it could be disadvantageous. Frankly speaking,

this is common sense in Japanese companies today. Including me, I don't think individuals

are prejudiced against gay people, but as a company or community gay people are abnormal

so that's how they're seen. I think this might be unique to Japan.

It's very normal to have foreign people around us in Japan now, but I think it'll still take

a little while to accept gay people the same way we accept foreigners.

But I think there were just as many people who said they knew someone at their work who

came out and didn't have problems. There was one comment I found really interesting, that

suggested a lot of gay men in Japan just end up ignoring their sexuality and living a typical

heterosexual life.

I don't have any gay acquaintances, so I'm just guessing... Compared to America, knowledge

about the LGBT category isn't very widespread. So because of that, I think there are some

Japanese people who are actually gay but don't realize it and feel a little odd about being

straight, but end up getting married to the opposite sex. And so, I heard that once Japanese

people get married and have kids, there are a lot of people who stop being a man and woman,

or lovers anymore, and then become housemates or best friends, and then become sexless.

There is statistical data that says Japanese people tend to be less interested in sex than

people in other countries. So in marriage, if you just want to be with a housemate or

a best friend, then it doesn't matter what sex they are. So I think people who are actually

gay don't really feel uncomfortable getting married to someone who's the opposite sex.

And as a result I think that makes gay Japanese people less noticeable. I don't think there's

discrimination against gay people in Japan.

And a number of people made points that in Japan it's not really common to loudly assert

yourself and demand equality:

I've had gay and lesbian friends, but I didn't think anything special about them, and my

other coworkers and friends didn't dislike them. But in Japan people who are overly self-assertive

are somewhat kept at a distance from normal people, so I think you should avoid saying

things loudly like, "I'm gay! I'm the same as everyone else!"

Japanese culture puts a lot of pressure on assimilating, so I imagine that even if you're

a little bit different it's difficult. As for foreigners, most people view them as completely

differently from Japanese people so I don't think people care if they're gay. Japan isn't

a country where you assert your rights. We're a society where without saying anything people

can guess your thoughts, or you can indirectly show your feelings through your expressions,

so if you demand rights then people consider you a nuisance. So if you say things like,

"I'm gay! I have the same rights as everyone else!" people might end up putting you at

a distance.

Fortunately there were a lot of people who felt like coming out isn't a huge deal among

young people anymore, and that the typical reaction is either being temporarily surprised,

or just saying, "Oh, really?

I don't think there are many young people who would view gay people negatively.

Twice before I've heard rumors about people around me being gay, but almost no one was

shocked or spoke badly about them. It must be very difficult and take courage to come

out for gay people, so I think a lot of people would respect that and welcome them warmly.

These days you see yaoi and yuri in manga all over the place so I think the younger

generation doesn't really mind.

When I hear that someone I don't know is gay I don't care--I would be like, "Oh, really?

Hmmm..." So in my opinion most Japanese people wouldn't mind, they would be like, "Just go

ahead, as long as you guys don't trouble anyone it will be fine." But if they do lovey-dovey

things right in front of you then I think it would bother people. It's the same as a

normal couple doing lovey-dovey things. There are gay people in Japan but I don't

think many of them are open about it. So for how gay people are viewed--basically Japanese

people are not interested in anyone but themselves and religion isn't widespread, so I don't

think there's much prejudice against gay people. However, that doesn't necessarily mean they

understand gay people. So people's reactions would be something like, "Oh, you're gay?

Huh." I think there are some people who don't accept gay people, but most Japanese people

don't mind and will welcome you without changing their attitude.

And many people seemed to think that LGBT foreigners shouldn't need to worry at all,

since they get grouped into a category of outsiders, just like with entertainers on

TV.

Frankly speaking, I think most Japanese people would warmly welcome foreign gay couples who

are visiting Japan. I think Japanese people are lenient, so as

long you don't completely ignore Japanese customs and do what you want then I think

Japanese people will respect your individuality. So if you're just visiting it should be fine,

but if you're working in a Japanese company and you come out then there are some people

who would find that troublesome. Unless being gay or another minority can be

a selling a point I don't think you should strongly support controversial subjects.